Trump Aide’s Book Withdrawn Amid Plagiarism Charges

Monica Crowley, who has been tapped for a job on the National Security Council, has been accused of using others' work without attribution in her 2012 book and 2000 Ph.D. dissertation.

HarperCollins has withdrawn a book by Monica Crowley, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, after a CNN report claimed more than 50 instances of plagiarism.

CNN found that the 2012 book What The (Bleep) Just Happened used work from Wikipedia, newspaper columns, articles and books without attribution. Crowley declined to comment to CNN when its KFIle investigative unit presented her with the allegations.

In response, HarperCollins issued a statement that said, “The book, which has reached the end of its natural sales cycle, will no longer be offered for purchase until such time as the author has the opportunity to source and revise the material.”

A separate Politico story argues Crowley plagiarized her 2000 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia University, “Clearer Than Truth: Determining and Preserving Grand Strategy: The Evolution of American Policy Toward the People’s Republic of China Under Truman and Nixon.” The Politico report cites numerous passages from some of the best-known academic works on America’s China policy that appear borrowed without attribution. Columbia University declined to comment on the allegations to Politico.

Crowley also was accused of plagiarism in 1999 for a Wall Street Journal column she wrote that was similar to a 1988 column in the conservative magazine Commentary. At the time, the Journal issued a statement saying that it would not have published the column if it had known about the similarities.

Crowley worked for former President Richard Nixon from 1990 until his death in 1994. She was hired after writing him a complementary as a college senior at Colgate University. After his death, she leveraged the relationship to write two books about him. Since the late 1990s, she has been a commentator on Fox News and MSNBC and hosted her own radio show.